Rationale
Orhan Pamuk’s novel The Museum of Innocence (2008) possesses the multimedial quality that is fascinating and inviting. It serves as both a literary work and an artistic product that derived from the act of collecting. Four years after the publication of the novel, Pamuk founded the museum in Istanbul that serves as the physical counterpart of the novel. At the same year, he also published a catalog The Innocence of Objects (2012) explaining the composition of each cabinet and the development of the museum. This special and complex project crosses various fields and further opens discussions on the art of collecting and displaying objects, furthermore the relationship between objects and narrative.
The Museum of Innocence is a project …show more content…
Thus in my thesis, I intend to delve into the following issues that are delicately developed and elaborated in the novel, catalog, and the museum. Firstly, how can we understand the nature of collecting from the collector—Kemal. Secondly, where does the urge to turn collections into literary text through the practice of cataloging and narrating comes from? In other words, how can an object initiate narrative? Thirdly, how can we understand the private museum space as both the container of the text and the text …show more content…
For me, the most ‘innocent’ part of this project is that Pamuk treated these ephemeral objects with his utmost tenderness and effort. The everyday objects which shadowed by a mysterious aura are put into this highly curated space—a private and fictional museum as if trying to beg for the last glance before they are benumbed by the indelible force of mass-production. The concept of private museum here becomes highly contradictive but fruitful for discussion. Thus, in terms of the analysis on the medium of the museum, I will read Karp and Lavine’s Exhibiting Cultures (1991) and Didier Maleuvre’s Museum Memories: History, Technology, Art (1999) to have a more meticulous look on museum context and its narrative development. Other reviews which directly related to The Museum of Innocence will also be included to draw an overall picture on how Pamuk’s project has been discussed in the topics I am interested in. Overall, I hope through further readings, I can enact a fuller investigation on Pamuk’s unique and complicated
Orhan Pamuk’s novel The Museum of Innocence (2008) possesses the multimedial quality that is fascinating and inviting. It serves as both a literary work and an artistic product that derived from the act of collecting. Four years after the publication of the novel, Pamuk founded the museum in Istanbul that serves as the physical counterpart of the novel. At the same year, he also published a catalog The Innocence of Objects (2012) explaining the composition of each cabinet and the development of the museum. This special and complex project crosses various fields and further opens discussions on the art of collecting and displaying objects, furthermore the relationship between objects and narrative.
The Museum of Innocence is a project …show more content…
Thus in my thesis, I intend to delve into the following issues that are delicately developed and elaborated in the novel, catalog, and the museum. Firstly, how can we understand the nature of collecting from the collector—Kemal. Secondly, where does the urge to turn collections into literary text through the practice of cataloging and narrating comes from? In other words, how can an object initiate narrative? Thirdly, how can we understand the private museum space as both the container of the text and the text …show more content…
For me, the most ‘innocent’ part of this project is that Pamuk treated these ephemeral objects with his utmost tenderness and effort. The everyday objects which shadowed by a mysterious aura are put into this highly curated space—a private and fictional museum as if trying to beg for the last glance before they are benumbed by the indelible force of mass-production. The concept of private museum here becomes highly contradictive but fruitful for discussion. Thus, in terms of the analysis on the medium of the museum, I will read Karp and Lavine’s Exhibiting Cultures (1991) and Didier Maleuvre’s Museum Memories: History, Technology, Art (1999) to have a more meticulous look on museum context and its narrative development. Other reviews which directly related to The Museum of Innocence will also be included to draw an overall picture on how Pamuk’s project has been discussed in the topics I am interested in. Overall, I hope through further readings, I can enact a fuller investigation on Pamuk’s unique and complicated